Oklahoma Academic Standard 3. The student will evaluate the major political and economic events that transformed the land and its people from the outbreak of the Civil War through allotment and land openings.

Objective 3.2  Assess the impact of the cattle and coal mining industries on the location of railroad lines, transportation routes, and the development of communities.

In a Nutshell

Students should understand that the introduction of various economic markets in Indian Territory connected the region directly to expanding economic activities present in the other regions of the United States. This economic growth was both beneficial and harmful due to the fact that while some accumulated wealth brought individual and tribal benefits, it opened the door to increasing non-Indian settlement that would ultimately challenge tribal sovereignty.

Teacher Action 

Student Action 

• Guide student analysis of the ways in which incentives and resource availability influence what is produced and distributed related to the impact of the cattle and coal mining industries on the location of railroad lines, transportation routes, and the development of communities.

• Assist students to analyze information from maps and images in order to draw conclusions regarding the impact of early development of natural resources and the development of communities. 

• Analyze the possible consequences, both intended and unintended, of government policies on markets in relationship to the early economic activities of ranching, mining, and transportation.

• Analyze the spatial patterns of human settlements using geographic technology from historic perspectives, making connections between economic activities and early townships.

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

• cattle trails, including the Chisholm Trail, Shawnee Trail, Western Trail

• vaqueros, Mexican influence on cowboy culture and ranching practices

• cattle towns, railhead

• JJ McAlester, Jesse Chisholm

• cattle transportation routes connecting Texas ranches to Kansas railroads; increased presence of settlers in the Territory.

• coal mining towns, reliance on immigrant labor

• Some students may be unfamiliar with the variety of setters migrating to present-day Oklahoma during this era and the impact of immigrants from Europe and African American migrants seeking refuge from the Reconstruction South, both of which began to lay the foundation of an increasingly ethnically diverse Indian Territory.  

Instructional Resources